The present invention relates to an infrared apparatus for baking biscuit-shaped foods such as pizzas, quiches, tarts, galettes, genoises, feuillete pastries, and fougasses.
At the present time, such foods are baked in traditional gas ovens with infrared radiation, with or without swirling hot air, or in specialized ovens having a heating apparatus of the burner type or electrical resistances and a heat accumulation arrangement, in particular refractory materials.
Before baking and to bring the mass of refractory materials to the right temperature, most ovens require a preheating phase. The length of the preheating phase affects both the total baking time and the consumption of energy. Moreover, electric ovens require a high installed power which has a substantial impact on the investment outlay and operating cost.
Present-day ovens are large in size, either because they must be versatile to accommodate voluminous dishes or foods that rise when baked, or because, to accumulate heat energy, they have a large volume of refractory materials and/or insulating materials.
In ovens that have two sources of infrared radiation, namely an upper source and a lower source, located one on either side of a plate in a baking chamber, the sources of infrared radiation are constituted by hairpin-shaped shielded resistors with or without a central sine curve. The sources are located near the floor and the roof and may be disposed in for example reflecting-gutter-shaped parts as in EP-A 236,269. The plate on which the dish to be baked is placed cooperates with brackets projecting from lateral walls that allow the vertical level of the plate to be adjusted as a function of baking needs.
With this design, and when shallow foods such as galettes are to be baked, the distance between the upper surface of the food and the roof resistor is on the order of 10 to 20 cm. This has the effect of increasing heat loss by dissipation of energy into the air and of using the infrared radiation under poor conditions, since its heating power increases in proportion to its closeness to the food. As a result, at constant electric power, the heat supplied for baking is lowered and to achieve the desired degree of baking, the baking time and electricity consumption must be increased.